Next Mazda6 to feature all of sleek Takeri concept’s advanced technologies

MAZDA has confirmed that all of the ground-breaking new technologies that lurk beneath the sleek Takeri concept will indeed be fitted to the next-generation Mazda6 due to emerge next year.

However, while Mazda’s redesigned mid-size mainstay will grow in all directions to fulfil its role as a single global model for all markets from 2013, it is unlikely to be as large as the Takeri.

Mazda has previously announced its next Six will not be produced in the US for North America, necessitating an increase in overall size for the model that will replace both Australia’s current Mazda6 and the wider-bodied US version.

Making its global debut at the Tokyo motor show today, the Takeri concept rides on a 2830mm wheelbase that is 103mm longer than the existing Mazda6’s and measures 4850mm long (up 115mm), 1870mm wide (up 75mm) and 1430mm high (down 10mm).

If the 2013 Mazda6 production sedan follows suit, its wheelbase will not only be one of the longest in the mid-size segment, but a sizeable 130mm longer than the first model to combine all of Mazda’s SkyActiv chassis, body and powertrain technologies, the CX-5.

However, the Mazda6 is unlikely to be as long as the Takeri.

“Takeri gives you a hint about Mazda’s next C/D (segment) car,” Mazda Motor Corporation director of research and development Hirotaka Kanazawa told GoAuto on the eve of the Tokyo show.

“So for our next C/D sedan we are thinking about making it a little bit bigger and Takeri reflects that.

“We want to give our next C/D sedan more rear seat comfort by making it bigger.

“Although Takeri gives you a hint about our next C/D car, when it comes to length, don’t think it will be the same.

“From the current Mazda6, we want to make it a little longer, but maybe not as long as Takeri. Takeri is a concept, so we wanted to emphasis its length.”

While the Mazda6 sedan will be bigger in order to fulfil its new global role, Mr Kanazawa said the wagon would not grow by the same degree.

“We wanted to make our biggest sedan a little bit bigger and Takeri is a sedan, but for the wagon we won’t make it so big,” he said.

Mr Kanazawa said the new Mazda6 would incorporate all of the Takeri’s technologies, including its more aerodynamic ‘Kodo’ body design, its 100kg-lighter SkyActiv chassis and its SkyActiv-D 2.2-litre twin-stage turbo-diesel engine with new SkyActiv-Drive six-speed automatic transmission and fuel-saving idle-stop system – as seen in the upcoming CX-5, but this time incorporating Mazda’s new i-ELOOP regenerative braking system.

Mazda’s powertrain development chief Mitsuo Hitomi told GoAuto that i-ELOOP would reduce real-world fuel consumption even more than i-stop because the capacitor-based system stored kinetic energy otherwise lost as heat when braking – such as during spirited driving – not just during stop-start city traffic.

All told, Mazda’s new low-compression 2.2-litre ‘clean’ diesel with six-speed auto, i-stop and i-ELOOP – plus a lighter new body – is expected to reduce the Six’s combined fuel consumption to a Toyota Camry Hybrid-beating 4.2L/100km.

However, Mazda’s new mid-sizer will also be offered with the Mazda3’s new 2.0-litre SkyActiv-G petrol engine in some markets – as well as a larger new Sky petrol engine, likely to displace the same 2.5 litres as the current model.

“We want to put a 2.0-litre (petrol engine in the next Mazda6), but please expect bigger one, too,” said Mr Kanazawa.